Aug. 8, 2007

DAYTON, Ohio -  The Dayton Flyer volleyball team begins its preparations for the upcoming season with its first full day of practice on Thursday at Frericks Center. The team will practice three times each day leading into its annual Alumnae Match on Aug. 18 in the Athletics Practice Facility at 4 p.m. ET. www.DaytonFlyers.com sat down with Head Coach Tim Horsmon to talk about his thoughts on the team heading into Thursday's first practice.

Dayton has won three straight Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championships and has advanced to the A-10 Finals each of the past four years. The 2003, 2004 & 2005 Atlantic 10 Champions hold the highest winning percentage of any active A-10 team in conference play (149-49, .753). UD has been home to four Atlantic 10 Players of the Year and two A-10 Setters of the Year under the direction of fifth-year head coach Tim Horsmon, who was named the 2005 A-10 Coach of the Year. The Flyers have recorded 12 consecutive winning seasons and six straight 20-win campaigns. Dayton was 22-11 in 2006 including a victory over #18 Arizona - the highest ranked opponent ever defeated by the Flyers.

www.DaytonFlyers.com sat down with Head Coach Tim Horsmon to talk about his thoughts on the team heading into Thursday's first practice.

DF.com:  Dayton has established itself as one of the top programs in the Midwest but the team still plays as if it has something to prove. What are the Flyers' goals for the 2007 season?
TH:  The goal remains the same. We want to of course win the Atlantic 10 Conference, get into the NCAA tournament and see how far we can get from there. As a program, we think we can play the top programs in the country and we need to show it now. We have also targeted being one of the Top 25 programs in the country on a consistent basis and keep moving forward towards achieving this. We received Top 25 votes last year and several opportunities to knock off National powerhouses including two five-game losses to Purdue (ranked #14 in the country) and Pepperdine (ranked #21). We did upset a very talented Arizona team that was ranked #18, which was a great win for our Flyer program. We simply want to be one of the best in the country every year and have more opportunities to lengthen our stay in the NCAA tournament.

DF.com:  Although you will have to replace two-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Faye Barhorst, UD has a freshman class voted as the 22nd best recruiting class in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com. What is your philosophy on recruiting?
TH:  Let me begin by saying what a great job our recruiting director Tami Ores does with recruiting. I really believe Tami is one of the best recruiters in the country and we are fortunate to have her in this role. We work hard at recruiting and have spent much more time this past year on recruiting players with great character and work ethic. We have traditionally recruited better athletes than polished volleyball players. I think one of the strengths of our coaches is what we do in the gym and how we train. We have had a lot of success going in and getting big strong athletes and training them to play different positions. I believe our next two classes are our best mix of athletes and really good volleyball players. Recruiting is about how hard you want to work at it and having a great University and volleyball program to sell. Faye will be tough to replace as are all All-Americans, but I have a feeling we have some players that are ready to fill some big shoes. I think we will continue to get players of Faye's caliber in coming years. We are excited about the next couple of years. We will have the opportunity to meld these talented incoming groups with our experience and hard working upperclassmen. We are recruiting to be one of the best in the Nation and that is tough at times. I would guess that all of our incoming players over the next couple of years and even the past couple of were being recruited by bigger schools and bigger conferences that would be considered by many as the best in the country. We have a great University to recruit to and have a special opportunity for players to walk into and to help us build this team into an elite volleyball program.

DF.com:  The Flyers boast the tallest front line in the Atlantic 10 Conference while also returning veterans in the back row as well as the 2006 A-10 Setter of the Year. What style of play fans can expect from Dayton in 2007?
TH:  We return all of our starters except for one and we think we are talented across the board. We have a great balance and should be deep in most positions, which will be relatively new for us. We want be known as a team that plays good, hard, disciplined volleyball. I think we will be balanced in how we play both offensively and defensively and shouldn't have any glaring weaknesses. We specifically worked on improving our floor defense, blocking and attacking this spring. I am hoping that time spent for those three months strengthened those skills and will improve our overall play. We need to play with a little more energy and confidence and I want this team to play the best defense since our arrival here at UD. This year could be our most physical team in four years and we could be a great blocking team if we capitalize on our size in the front row.

DF.com:  The pre A-10 schedule is filled with many teams that are in the mix for NCAA bids each season while the A-10 schedule will be challenging as always. What was your overall strategy in scheduling this season?
TH:  We had a really tough and rewarding schedule last year and wanted to maintain as much as we could that competitive level. We begin the year hosting Illinois, Bowling Green and IPFW. Illinois has one of top recruiting classes coming in with a number of really solid Big 10 performers returning and finished the year with a RPI of 36. Bowling Green ended up second last year in the MAC and returns all but one player. IPFW is always a really well coached team and this tournament should be a great jumping off point for us to begin the year.

We make two return trips this year to a pair of non-conference teams that played in Frericks Center last season. The Purdue tournament (Mortar Board Premier) should be challenging with Utah last year being a Top 20. Host Purdue had a great season last year making it to the Sweet 16 and also spending most of the year in the Top 20. North Carolina each year is one of the best in the ACC. It is another great tournament and this weekend should give us a great idea where we are in consideration to some of the best in the country.

We have Cincinnati at home and then travel down to Wake Forest for a tournament along with Radford and Jacksonville for the weekend. Wake has really made some strides since playing us last year in Dayton and I think they are going to have a good year with their second year coach.

We travel to play in Baltimore at Towson University in Mid September. We play Western Kentucky, which I would consider as one of the best mid-major programs in the country and can play with almost anyone. Towson has had a great run the last few years and UMBC should make strides in their conference this year as well.

We also have Wright State, Youngstown State and Cleveland State to fill out our non-conference schedule in late October before the A-10 Championship. Our Thanksgiving weekend will be an A-10/MAC challenge playing two of the best in that conference in Miami and Western Michigan. This will be held in Oxford, Ohio this year.

I think our schedule will prepare us for another tough A-10 schedule. I like the teams that we are playing and I think this will allow us to improve our RPI playing these programs and give us experience playing different types of talented programs.